Battle Slots is a strategy RPG reminiscent of Puzzle Quest. If you’re familiar with that, stick with what you know, it plays much better.
The battle system in this game is incredibly simple and requires little to no learning curve what-so-ever. It’s just enough for you to enjoy though, and I promise you will if you’re a fan of these types of RPGs.
Once you enter combat, the screen literally opens up like a slot machine, pressing spin will randomize the 15 block slot into random images that all contribute to your XP, Gold, MP, & AP gain.
These are represented by colors, Green, Yellow, Blue, and Red respectively. You’ll gradually fill your MP & AP but can only perform one attack per turn. It doesn’t matter if you have enough to use a physical and magical attack, you can only use one so try to be a bit cautious about which you use.
In the main town, Hearthstone, you can shop around, pick up side quests at the tavern, add attacks to your list, equip runes to aid in battle, etc. etc. You can always view all your current items in your battle slot, or capture certain creatures throughout the game that will give you special abilities. To view those creatures, just visit the Zoo! How convenient.
As you progress through its easily forgettable story, you’ll gain more images for your battle slot which will contribute to more matches and more gains. Using the gold you can upgrade your attacks, buy weapon and armor to help you withstand and persevere combat which is the strongest point of this game. I often found myself just skipping dialogue just to get to the combat.
It’s not that the story sucks; it just didn’t grasp my attention enough to sit through every NPC dialogue wondering what will happen next. Who cares? Just let me kill some faeries.
The lack of first availability purchase options will leave you feeling weak and underpowered in the beginning of the game and the first items to buy are just a bit too expensive to start off with. Some enemies have incredibly strong attacks and make you feel like the battle is lost before you’ve even started. I’ve encountered a bear that would lock my slot and attack for at least 5 spins whilst he decimated me resulting in a rather embarrassing defeat.
Whilst the character art is..lacking..the visuals make up for it. Each action seems to have its own detailed animation that blends in well with the combat, which is where this games strongest point lies. Musically the game reminds me heavily of Fishdom 2 with a bit of Royal Envoy in the sense the music is great at first, but becomes very old very fast.
I’d hate to slag on a game that people have put so much work into but there’s just nothing here that Puzzle Quest doesn’t do better but as always I do very much enjoy the indie titles and can appreciate the hard work involved. If you enjoyed Puzzle Quest but love supporting the lesser known developers, I’d say this game is right for you, otherwise just stick with what you already have.
Review
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Entertaining battle system, vibrant visuals | Lacking story, repetitive music, poor character designs |
| Rating |
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a triumphant return